Every team presents to a panel of judges on Day 2. Here's what they're looking for, and what's on the line.
High School and College are judged separately — High School awards 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place; College currently has enough teams for a 1st place only. The remaining $500 goes to three special awards below.
★ Special Awards
Open to any team or hacker, regardless of division. Here's exactly how each is picked:
Goes to the team with the highest Pitch Clarity score, excluding teams that already won a High School or College placement.
Goes to the team with the highest combined Innovation + Impact & Relevance score, excluding teams that already won a High School or College placement.
One winner recognized among first-time brother hackers, one among first-time sister hackers — not a rubric score. Mentors nominate first-timers who showed real initiative and helped others throughout the event; organizers pick the winners from those nominations.
Each category is scored somewhere within its band, based on judgment — not a strict checklist. Working Demonstration and Innovation carry the most weight — a real, functioning demo and a genuinely original idea matter more here than a polished slide deck. Download a printable copy ↗
Does the prototype or product function during the demonstration? Are the main features shown clearly?
Judged on how clearly the team explains their problem, solution, target users, and business model out loud — not on slide design.
Scored on AI in the final product only — not on whether the team used AI tools like Claude or Copilot while building. No AI at all is not penalized; a project can still score the full 100 without it.